


Patience and Patients

by Angylsmuse, Rina9294



Series: Fourth Pass [5]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 22:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8915605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angylsmuse/pseuds/Angylsmuse, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rina9294/pseuds/Rina9294
Summary: Does annoyance hide something more?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted October 2002.

P08.10.17  
Babalon Weyr Infirmary  
Late Afternoon 

_You had to tell Armeganth that I got scraped up on those rocks when I pulled that fool kid from the surf, didn’t you?_ T’lon fumed at his dragon as he stalked towards Babalon’s Infirmary.

_Bad enough the idiot kid’s father is a Lord Holder and considers me some kind of hero, now I got Wingleader B’tem sending me to get patched up and telling me to take it easy for a couple of days. I don’t want to take it easy for a couple of days!_

_Tough! You did a brave thing, T’lon, but a stupid one. Now you need to get patched up and recover, so stop acting like a newly hatched dragonet,_ Quinth shot back.

Growling, Tael stalked into the Infirmary only to stop short. _Oh no, no way! Not a sharding chance! I am not letting the greatest gift to healing since Landing to get his hands on me. I get enough dirty looks when I go in for char burns and he’s on duty. I_ am not _submitting myself to his tender ministrations_ , Tael seethed as he turned on his heel to leave.

Brown Gambler chirped, drawing Barrington’s attention from the record he was updating to the figure in the doorway. _Oh great, just what I need after a day of hidework - the ancestors’ gift to men traipsing in here in his usual surly mood._

Then the journeyman healer noticed the slight stiffness of the bluerider’s movements and stood, forehead creasing as his training took over. “If you want something looked at, it’s much easier done in here than in the corridor,” he commented, setting the hide on the desk and starting toward the dark-haired dragonrider, wondering what he had managed to do to himself this time.

Tael bit back a curse and turned to face the healer. Planning on making some trumped up excuse like he was looking for that cute healer that just transferred in, T’lon put on his most feline-like smile, only to be blasted by Quinth.

_T’lon, if you don’t tell him, I swear I will have Madrigath and Tamarath send your clutchmates after you. Then you’ll be in real trouble!_

“Sharding flitter-brained dragon, why’d I have to Impress _you_?!” Tael muttered under his breath, not really meaning it, just frustrated beyond belief. Quinth was not about to let him out of the Infirmary without being patched up. _It couldn’t have been any other healer, could it?_ he groaned to himself.

Suppressing the urge to shout, Tael came back inside the room. “Got my back scraped up on some rocks, then went _between_ still wet in order to get to a hold,” he informed Healer Barrington roughly. There was no way he was telling him any more than that. Last thing he wanted was for the healer to know he’d done something stupid, like diving into frigid water to save a foolish kid. What was it about this man that made him want to growl?

Barrington’s frown deepened; going _between_ with injuries was the quickest way he knew to get an infection and to do so wet as well... The other man should have known better by now - not that anything anyone ever said to him sank into that thick head.

“Better take a look at you then,” he commented easily, motioning the taller man to follow him toward one of the exam rooms. “Check your lungs out as well as your back while I’m at it; don’t want you back here in a sevenday suffering from pneumonia.” _Shells, that would be all I needed - him stuck here while he was sick and probably whining or bitching the whole time._

A breathless rider came running into the infirmary as he looked around, a bit wide eyed. His deep cognac eyes were dark with worry as he spotted T’lon with Barrington. “Tael?” came the worried tone of the bluerider.

T’lon’s head shot around at the familiar voice of his once-lover, now dearest friend. Hiding the grimace of pain behind a smile, Tael tried to ease the other man’s mind. “I’m okay ‘Cole,” Tael soothed, his voice losing its sharp edge and becoming warm and husky.

“Don’t tell me you were worried. You know me better than that. Despite what some may think, I wouldn’t take chances like this without a damn good reason. I got too much to come back to, don’t I?” Tael murmured, thinking of his family and dearest friends.

Without thinking, T’lon rubbed the back of a hand against his friend’s cheek, a careless gesture from a time long gone. “Don’t worry, ‘Cole; I’m fine real...” The fit of violent coughing took him by surprise. “Shaffit!” he cursed when the coughing finally eased up. “I am _not_ getting sick, not over some holder’s brat,” Tael murmured angrily at himself.

“If you two are finished billing and cooing, perhaps I can do my job here?” Barrington inquired acidly. A shaft of irritation had speared through him when he saw the obvious affection the two showed each other, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. _Get him patched up, and then he can go back to his love nest._

Dr’cole stared at the healer for a moment, taken back by his tone, and then looked at his ex-lover. A small gleam entered his eye, and he sent word through his dragon for the other man to play along. “Of course I am worried,” he said effecting a sappy tone, as he moved to place a possessive hand on the bluerider’s arm. He looked at his best friend and smiled softly at him. “I love you, Brat.”

 _Cestmirth says that Dr’cole says play along. What does that mean?_ Quinth sent to his rider.

 _I don’t know, love, but I’ve got a feeling I’m about find out. Ask Cestmirth to say I agree, will you?_ Tael sent as the healer’s comments finally penetrated his pain-fogged brain. Realizing what the healer had intimated and what his friend was up to, Tael was torn between groaning and laughing. He settled for growling.

“Screw this! I’ve had a sharding bad day already - last thing I need is you taking out your bad mood on me just because I’ve got someone worried about me. I’m sure ‘Cole wouldn’t be bothered by patching me up, and I’d probably get much better care anyways,” Tael snarled as he surged off the bed he’d been sitting on. He’d probably just ask one of his sibs to patch up his back and come back when Lord High and Mighty Healer wasn’t on duty. The last thing Tael expected was the wave of dizziness that washed over him, causing him to sink back into the bed.

 _T’lon!_ came Quinth’s cry.

 _I’m fine, Quin, just light-headed,_ Tael soothed, even as he responded to the alarmed sound that had emerged from Dr’cole’s throat. . “Just feeling light-headed, lover, nothing some sleep and getting out of here won’t take care of! And don’t call me brat - you know I hate that name,” he sighed, leaning into the strong arms Dr’cole wrapped around him.

“Promise not to,” Barrington said dryly. The moment he saw the bluerider sag, he’d pushed forward, catching and supporting the younger man until he was sitting on the bed once again. _Damn, it’s not his fault that I’m in a bad mood to begin with._

The other man tensed, realizing just who was behind him, but the healer didn’t release his hold around his torso. “Sit here and I’ll let go; I’m not having you pass out on the floor here and hurt yourself more.”

T’lon relaxed imperceptibly, and Barrington slowly loosened his hold and stood. “You need to get your shirt off; can you handle it yourself, or do you need some help?”

“What do I look like? An infant? Of course I can handle getting my own shirt off,” Tael bit out, actually very unsure of whether or not he could.

He’d been slammed back into the rough rocks of that cove more than once, and the ebb and flow of the waves had made him rub against them. He’d been bleeding like a stuck wherry when he’d thrown the shirt on, hoping he’d be able to get someone at the hold to look at him, but when the lord holder had started gushing, he’d opted to get out of there and have a weyrhealer look at it.

That was over a candlemark ago, and the shirt had probably dried into the wounds now. Not only that but he was pretty bruised by being slammed into the unyielding rock surfaces. This was gonna hurt - a lot - but he’d be thrice damned if he’d tell the healer that.

Quinth, on the other hand, had no problems with telling someone. So he told Cestmirth, who relayed the message on to Dr’cole.

“No way, Tael,” the bluerider all but snarled as he heard the relay from his dragon as he reached to stop the other man. He looked imploringly at the healer. “His dragon says he took a major hit on the rocks. That and he’s been bleeding.” He glared over at his ex-lover for his stubbornness. “That’s just great, Tael, go _between_ with wet blood - it’s going to be stuck to you.” He moved, wanting to help the other man but not sure how.

 _QUINTH! Dammit!!_ Tael cursed his dragon a blue streak; it was the only way Dr’cole could have known. Quinth had tattled.

 _I_ AM NOT _about to let you hurt yourself more than you already have, T’lon!_ Quinth snarled back. His rider had to be the most stubborn dragonrider since the invention of dragonriders.

Gambler muttered at the men, shifting uneasily with the emotional level around him. He caught the image Quinth passed on to Cestmirth and sent it to Barrington, his eyes whirling faster and taking on a yellow tinge as he “saw” the dragonrider pushed against the rocks by the waves.

“You do not look like an infant, and there is no way on Pern that you’re going to be able to get that shirt off by yourself. Now, I have two questions - one for each of you: Do you want fellis before I start this? And...” Here he looked at Dr’cole. “...Can you handle helping me with some of this?”

“Definitely,” he answered easily. “Have helped out with stuff like this before. Just show me what you want done.”

“Let’s get his jacket off first, and then I can see what we’ll need to do about his shirt.” Without asking permission, Barrington began to ease T’lon’s flight jacket off his shoulders and down his arms, alert for any pulling that would indicate that the fur-lined interior had stuck to the wounds also.

“I wasn’t wearing the jacket when I went _between_ the first time.” T’lon half growled, half groaned. “Wanted to keep the kid warm so wrapped him in it. So just get the sharding thing off, will you? This isn’t making it any easier.”

“Is he always this grouchy when someone is trying to help him?” the healer sighed, ignoring his patient’s snarl as they got the jacket off and set aside. The sight that greeted him was not a pretty one. The blood had dried the dragonman’s shirt to much of his back, and those parts that were visible through the rents in the cloth were raw and abraded.

“Yes,” he sighed.

“I am present, you know.” Tael grimaced as he felt the healer’s tentative touch. “Fellis juice might be a very good idea right now,” the bluerider admitted harshly. He hated the stuff, but his back was beginning to feel like it was on fire.

Barrington nodded at that and moved to mix up a strong draught. “Drink this,” he ordered, handing the mug to the bluerider and then going back to examining his back. “You may want to steady him once I start this; between the fellis and the damage he’s done to himself, this isn’t going to be easy.”

Tael wasn’t quite sure how he managed to stay conscious through the excruciating process of removing his shirt. He figured it was probably a combination of worrying about what Quinth would do if he passed out and his own stubborn refusal to show the healer any weakness. His well-bitten lip was proof of that.

Once the shirt had been removed though, Barrington was surprisingly gentle, helping lay him on his stomach and smoothing his back with healing herbs and numbweed. The fellis began to do its work though, and soon Tael felt his eyes begin to close, but before they did, he had a favor to ask.

“’Cole - get ‘mirth to explain to Quin that I’m not gone, will you? Just in case. He’s pretty shaken up - but too damn stubborn to admit it. I don’t want him doing something stupid like going _between_ for good,” Tael asked softly.

“’M glad you were here, best of friends - wouldn’t have been able to get through this alone and didn’t want the sibs to know; don’t tell them unless you absolutely have to, okay? They drive me nuts with their worrying,” the rapidly fading dragonrider continued.

“Of course old man,” he teased softly even as he asked his dragon to pass the information along to Quinth. Dr’cole also asked as his dragon to let his mate know he’d be home soon.

Snuggling into the bed linens, T’lon felt a blanket pulled carefully up over him and sighed gratefully. “Thanks, healer,” he muttered softly, “even if you are a pain in the ass.”  T’lon allowed his eyes to close and let the voices of the other two men wash over them.  He was pleasantly tired and out of pain but not quite ready to fall asleep just yet.

Bar rolled his eyes toward the ceiling but couldn’t quite suppress a chuckle at the bluerider’s comment. “Just doing my job,” he said quietly, resting a hand on the other man’s forehead to make sure that he wasn’t feverish.

After staying that way for longer than was strictly necessary, he straightened and adjusted the blanket over T’lon’s shoulders again, then looked over at the other dragonrider. “Are you going to be wanting to stay here tonight with him?”

“What?” he asked, looking a little confused as he got the relay from his mate’s dragon from his own. “No, he’d hate it if I did that, can’t stand me or his sibs mother-henning him.”

The healer frowned slightly at that but kept quiet; after all, who was he to criticize other people’s relationships? “Do you want me to send Gambler for you if his condition changes?” That would mean spending the night here, but that wasn’t a problem; in fact he somewhat enjoyed the idea. It gave him a chance to study the dragonman when he wasn’t on the attack.

The rider nodded; he then blushed softly, unable to keep the lie up. “He’s not my weyrmate. My pain in the ass is at home in our weyr. Tael and I are old friends and even older lovers, so I still worry about him. Still love him and don’t want to see him hurt - anyway.”

“Then why ...?” It wasn’t important, though part of him was very happy over this sudden change in events. “I’ll take care of him, Bluerider; I give you my word. No harm will come to him here.”

Tael groaned softly. First ‘Cole decided to matchmake, then he decided to tell the healer the truth. What next - suggesting they become weyrmates too? Riiight - like the healer would even think of him that way. Wait a minute - where did that come from?

“I’m still here and still awake, you know,” he sulked out loud to get his mind off his unnatural thoughts. “An’ I can take care of myself,” he muttered, annoyed at his own weakness.

“Not for long you won’t be; I know how much fellis I gave you,” Bar corrected. “And right now you cannot take care of yourself; shards, even Gambler could take you with no trouble.”

~*~*~

_A sevenday later, afternoon_

Tael walked quietly into the healer’s offices, taking the few minutes before Gambler noticed him to watch the pain-in-the-ass healer. What was it about Barrington that set his teeth on edge but always left him wanting... something? Damn, if he didn’t know better, he’d say he was falling for Pern’s gift to healers. Tael shuddered at the thought; there was no way he’d be that stupid - was there?

 _This was a bad idea; I’ll come back when he’s not on duty,_ T’lon thought as he turned to slip silently out of the rooms. _Besides, I don’t think I could handle feeling those hands on my bare back any more. Those long-fingered, elegant, sensual... Whoa! Where did that come from? Definitely time for me to switch healers,_ Tael thought, grimacing slightly at the sudden uncomfortable shift of his thoughts.

The brown flitter whistled stridently, and Barrington turned from the bandages he was rolling to see T’lon ducking out of the doorway. “Just in time for your appointment,” he called, determined not to let the other man slip away. _Been looking forward to this too much and you know it,_ he muttered to himself.

It was a bad idea, a _really_ bad idea, but he found himself thinking of the bluerider often - too often for his peace of mind. Fortunately for the healer, the exams he had done on the other man after his injury had been centered on his injuries, but now that he was healed... Even though he was going to be concentrating on his duties, it was going to be hard to ignore the elegant sweep of muscles under the dragonman’s skin or the way his dark hair skimmed his shoulders.

 _Stop it! Patient, Healer, deal with it, okay?_ “If you want to get that shirt off, then lie down on the table over there, I’ll take care of you.”

Tael almost groaned out loud. This was just not his day - or his sevenday even. Figured he’d get caught trying to sneak out. Silly little creature had to tattle on him - Shards, the flit was almost as bad as Quin.

Settling for stalking over to the healer’s table in what he hoped was a defiant sort of movement, Tael slowly stripped off his shirt and arranged himself on his stomach.

Shells, how much longer was this gonna take? He’d only taken his shirt off, and he was half aroused already - and damnit all, when did just the thought of the healer’s hands on him get him this hot and bothered? He felt like a rider experiencing their dragon’s first flight. This was not good.

The more Tael thought about it, the tenser and more irritable he became. He’d be thrice cursed if he’d let his hormones rule him - especially hormones that reacted to a certain pain-in-the-ass. This was not gonna happen. Time to get out of here - before it was too late.

“How much longer do I have to waste my time here, healer? My back is healed - I wanna get back to flying Thread. Quin and I need to be up there. And I’d kinda like to be able to go _between_ again! Makes it hard to go cliff diving when the cliffs I wanna dive are at the bottom of Avylon territory and I’m stuck here.”

 _I swear, if I’ve ever had a more recalcitrant patient, I can’t remember the fact,_ Barrington sighed to himself, wishing for a split-second that there was another reason the younger man was reclining before him. _Oh, get over it, Bar; he obviously isn’t interested, can’t wait to get away from you. You’re just lonely is all, have to start looking again. Too bad things didn’t work out with K’gan ..._

“Don’t worry, Wingrider. This should be the last time you have to deal with me - as long as you manage not to get yourself banged up again on my shift.” Concentrating on the paler skin of the now healed scrapes and gashes, Bar nodded to himself, pressing his fingers against the warm skin, looking for any signs of residual pain or weakness.

“Would recommend you stay away from the cliffs off Dark Water Hold for another few sevendays though. Stick to the ones near the Weyr or anywhere on the leeward side of an island; you don’t want to risk doing anything that would land you in here again, I’m sure.”

The journeyman had to smile to himself at that, remembering fondly the times he’d leapt from the heights to the waves below and the look in Master Lucian’s eyes when his mate had coaxed him over. _Bayton definitely inherited our father’s ways of dealing with people - either that or it’s the way he can handle a weapon that does it._ The journeyman chose not to elaborate to himself as to which weapon he was speaking of.

T’lon was hard-pressed not to squirm as the healer’s hands moved over his now healed flesh. He had to bite down on his lip to stop a moan from escaping. _Shards, that felt so good and...Shaffit!!_ He shifted slightly, trying to relieve the pressure in his now swollen groin.

This was all he needed - to be sporting a throbbing erection when he was finally allowed to sit up again. Why oh why did the healer have to be so good with his hands? And why did he have to be the one Tael wanted more than breath? And most importantly, what in Pern was he gonna do about it?


End file.
